Le Prologue

Le Other One

Wes and I did a quick reccy up South Mountain as we'd spent s many evenings / mornings Skyping about it. We met Jeremy on the way out of Phoenix and he showed us around and back via the beautiful San Juan road. Coffee and vegan empanadas at Azukar Coffee for breakfast and back by 9:30.

We have four options, to suit various levels of fitness & challenge. All of these involve heading south from the Convention Centre in a single peloton. We will then head up various bits of the mountain to suit, until an agreed time. As it warms up we will head back down the hill, meet at the park entrance and head back in to Phoenix as a group.

It will be hot, but not impossible as WeatherSpark suggests. Local riders advise us to head out at dawn - sunrise is at 6:30. The great thing here is that if we head out early we will miss the traffic and we would be back in the city when it gets warm, and home in time for flights in the afternoon and evening. Maybe we'll stop at the South Mountain Cafe for Chilaquiles on the way back.

South Mountain is one of the largest Municipal Parks in America. It has the highest density of chuckwallas per hectare that has ever been reported.

I have no idea what a chuckwalla is.

2016 - LE TOUR DE VIRTUAL

Could we collectively ride 1,000km in November and December?

Well, almost.

We were on track on 20th November ... 490km completed

Less so on 20th December ... 710km completed

Then crazy challenge coordinator J.Dykes fell off on 31st December and ended up in hospital with a broken collar-bone, thoughtfully paving the way for his heroes Geraint Thomas and Richie Porteto follow suit in the New Year. Never mind, we had fun.

Rides in California, New England, virtual London, the snowy Austrian Alps, the dry plains of Alberta and the bumpy lumpy soggy hills of Rutland are getting us close to the 1,000km target.

2016 - BALTIMORE

We rode 85km with almost 1,000m climbing into the rolling hills north of the City, as suggested by Brenton @ Race Pace Cycles ...

8am at the inner harbour, up Calvert then out along the Falls Road and a climb to the Bonjour patisserie on Falls and West Lake for un grand petit dejeuner. Then pavement heaven along smooth slick rolling Hillside Road ...

Onwards and up into 'horse country', along beautiful Belmont Avenue and on to Veloccino Coffee at Butler, for repairs (thanks Marc), bike tests, electrolytes and a cold press ...

Along the corn-edged Cuba Road, up Ivy Hill then back down to Baltimore in autumn afternoon sunshine, with bike return to RacePace and a meal in cleats at Little Havana.

2015 - CHICAGO

Le Tour de VIS

Rain, wind, waves and an unexpected and prolonged interaction with the various saturated cows, zombies, superheroes and Scooby Doos participating in the Halloween Monster Dash half marathon made #LeTourDeVIS Chicago a bit of a challenge. But we braved the weather, found good coffee and managed not to skid into Lake Michigan. Just about.

Le Prologue

Miriah and Brian set things up on Friday - we all used Divvy bikes to head along the Lakeshore and up to the Hop Leaf bar in a loosely formed and easily distracted peloton.

2014 - PARIS

In 2014, #LeTourDeVIS was introduced as a post-VIS bike ride open to all, with a peloton of 20 decked out in ColorBrewer jerseys taking in Le Tour Eiffel, Le Chateau de Versailles and a well known laboratory in science park near Gif-sur-Yvette that does some pretty cool visualization. Wes and Lora figured out the route, the rest of us rolled along behind ...

2013 - SEATTLE

Jo and Jason found helpful bike shops (Velo downtown and the Montlake Bicycle Shop) and a great route from the centre of Seattle round Lake Washington. Breakfast at a brewery, fantastic coffee and brunch back at Oddfellows listening to Elliott Smith

2013 - SANTA BARBARA

The Velo Club de VIS came about after an exhilarating ride in California. Ross, Miriah, Jason & Kerry climbed the Gibraltar Road after a workshop at UCSB. The ascent was spectacular and involved climbing through and above the cloud, dodging vultures and descending rapidly through thick mist.

2012 - ATLANTA

Atlanta didn't seem to have a very vibrant roadie scene so Jason headed to Chattahoochee National Forest, found some grits for breakfast, got a lift in a pick-up to the top of a hill and pounded down and around on a Mountain Bike. He felt like he needed a bike club.

2010 - SALT LAKE CITY

Aidan, Jo, Jason and Yarden cycled up in the hills above Salt Lake just before VisWeek. This included a climb up the Snowbasin road under Mount Ogden. Yarden did a great job getting bikes set up.